CHIP
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Maintaining Coverage for Children: Retention Strategies
Efforts to decrease the number of uninsured children in America often focus on increasing enrollment in Medicaid and SCHIP. With over six million uninsured children eligible for these programs, outreach and enrollment activities can indeed be one of the most effective strategies for covering uninsured children. This issue brief provides specific strategies that can be…
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Reaching Eligible but Uninsured Children in Medicaid and SCHIP
One of the most important steps a state can take to provide health coverage to its children is to reach uninsured children who already qualify for Medicaid or the SCHIP. Some six million children who are uninsured qualify for the two programs, representing close to seven in ten of all uninsured children. The vast majority…
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Program Design Snapshot: State Buy-in Programs for Children
Child buy-in programs allow families with incomes in excess of a state’s Medicaid/SCHIP eligibility levels to purchase insurance for their children through the public plan. This short brief reviews state child buy-in programs, and provides an overview of issues that states must consider when implementing a program. It shows that while enrollment in the programs…
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Weathering the Storm: States Move Forward on Child and Family Health Coverage Despite Tough Economic Climate
This report provides a first look at state activity after the passage of CHIPRA and the availability of increased Medicaid funding in the economic stimulus package. It finds that despite unprecedented fiscal challenges, all but a few states held steady on children’s health coverage, and twenty-three states took steps to move forward. This progress on…
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The Louisiana Experience: Successful Steps to Improve Retention in Medicaid and SCHIP
Over the past decade, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals has taken a series of progressive and innovative steps to reduce the number of children who lose Medicaid or CHIP (known as LaCHIP) coverage at renewal for reasons not related to eligibility. In 2008, less than 1% of children enrolled in Louisiana’s LaCHIP program…
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Washington State: Coverage to All Children
Beginning in February 2009, Washington began enrolling children with family incomes up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) in its new Apple Health for Kids program. The implementation of this expansion is only the most recent phase of a comprehensive effort to cover all children that began over 2 years ago when…
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CHIP Reauthorization: New Opportunities for Moving Forward
By Cindy Mann Commonwealth Fund Leadership Forum on Early Childhood Development — Presentation Document February 2009
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Postcards from CCF – Washington
CHIPRA and the rescission of the CMS August 17 Directiveare already making a difference in the lives of children and families in Washington.Meet Sarah McIntyre, an 8-year-old girl living in Yakima, Washington who loves school, music and dance. On the surface, she’s just another happy-go-lucky 2nd grader. Look a little deeper and you’ll find an…
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The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009
On February 4, 2009, President Obama signed into law the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA). The new law (Public Law No. 111-3) is designed to provide coverage to significant numbers of uninsured children and to improve the quality of care that all of America’s children receive. Most notably, it strengthens and…
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State Child Buy-In Programs: A Snapshot
Author: Dawn Horner Families USA — Presentation Document January 2009
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Program Design Snapshot: Paperless Income Verification
By Joe Touschner Medicaid and SCHIP collect information on families’ incomes in order to determine eligibility. Most states require applicants to present paper copies of pay stubs and other documents, such as records of child support payments, to verify their incomes. The short brief shows that states, however, have the opportunity to modernize their programs…
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Data Reporting to Assess Enrollment and Retention in Medicaid and SCHIP
Enrollment and retention data are essential tools to ensuring that all uninsured children eligible for Medicaid and SCHIP are enrolled. Reliable data reported on a routine basis help to pinpoint both administrative inefficiencies and opportunities to assure coverage of eligible children. This paper describes high level data points that help to identify bottlenecks and barriers,…
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Keeping the Promise to Children and Families in Tough Economic Times
Ten years of progress on children’s health care coverage is threatened by increasing unemployment, declining state revenues, and a growing affordability gap between family income and the cost of healthcare coverage. This report estimates that over the past year, 4.1 million people have lost their employer-based coverage, including 1.2 million children. It offers options to…
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Postcards from CCF – Louisiana
Louisiana has done an incredible job of reducing the number of children who lose coverage for LaCHIP (Louisiana’s Medicaid or SCHIP) at renewal. What’s the secret to success? Ruth Kennedy, LaCHIP’s director, provides us with the answers. (Additional resources on Louisiana’s renewal processes are also available at the end of the interview.) CCF It is…
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Postcards from CCF – Wisconsin (ACCESS)
Wisconsin is one of those quiet, competent places that doesn’t toot its own horn much. It sits back and takes all those cracks about being the cheese capital of the nation while working diligently on innovations to improve the quality of life for its residents. That’s why it is no surprise that Wisconsin is a…
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Program Design Snapshot: Public Coverage Waiting Periods for Children
By Martha Heberlein “Waiting period” refers to the length of time a child is required to be uninsured prior to enrolling in a public health coverage program. The restriction generally applies to separate SCHIP programs only, as waiting periods are not permitted in Medicaid without a waiver. Waiting periods are primarily designed to deter crowd…
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States Moving Forward: Children’s Health Coverage in 2007-08
To a surprising extent, given the weakening economy and growing fiscal strains, states have continued to move forward in their efforts to expand and improve health coverage for children. Notably, over the last year, nineteen states provided health coverage for more uninsured children and families by expanding Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program…
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Putting Out the Welcome Mat: Implications of Coverage Expansions for Already-Eligible Children
By Jocelyn Guyer This fact sheet reports data from four states, Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, that have expanded eligibility. The data indicates that “putting out the welcome mat” and offering affordable coverage options through public programs to a broad array of uninsured children in a state can have a powerful effect on the enrollment…
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North Carolina Eligibility Expansion
Summary On July 31, 2007, Governor Mike Easley signed into law NC Kids’ Care. NC Kids’ Care is a new publicly subsidized insurance program for children in families earning 201 percent to 300 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). Currently, North Carolina provides Medicaid and Health Choice (its SCHIP program) to children with family…
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Choosing Premium Assistance: What Does State Experience Tell Us?
Premium assistance programs use federal and state Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) funds to purchase private coverage. Overall, few states have premium assistance programs, but interest in premium assistance remains high. This issue brief examines six state premium assistance programs (in Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Oregon, Utah, and Virginia) that allow families to…